


The Art of Letting Go (And Falling In Love Again)

by Magical_Girl_Wanda_Maximoff



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters: X & Y | Pokemon X & Y Versions
Genre: Depression, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Poor Life Choices, Redemption, angst but not angst, back from the dead, mental illness stuff, poor communication
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-15
Updated: 2016-04-19
Packaged: 2018-04-20 21:30:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4802873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Magical_Girl_Wanda_Maximoff/pseuds/Magical_Girl_Wanda_Maximoff
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Four years after the Geosenge incident Professor Sycamore isn't really his old self but a surprise letter and the reappearance of someone from his past helps him come back to his senses. Or does it?<br/>A miracle happened under that rubble and the world may not be ready for the consequences, or reward of what happened. Augustine has a lot of hard decisions to make and personal issues to overcome, and Lysandre has come back to a world that would love to see him back under a Kilometer of rubble.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Augustine sat alone in his study, it was a sunny day, but it was unusually cold for an early autumn day in Lumiose City. He nursed a cup of coffee in his hands, it had already begun to turn lukewarm in the september air blowing through the open windows. Yesterday one of his assistants had insisted that he open the window, let some fresh air in, it had been so long since he had done it, and yesterday was so much warmer, just like how it was… Augustine had found himself lost in thought again. It had been nearly four years since the incident in Geosenge Town had taken place but it was still fresh in his mind like the frost on the grass on a November morning. He knew what had happened, there was no way that he could get him back, even if there was a snowball’s chance in hell that he was still alive for some reason, Augustine knew that he would be too far gone. Those things that he had said,“Oh! if only everyone were like her, what a beautiful world would it be!”, “I can’t stand the world becoming uglier”, “everything beautiful should stay that way forever”. Every word, every memory of him, of Lysandre, cut like a knife. Augustine should have known, the way he spoke about beauty and people, he should have known, STUPID! STUPID! STUPID ME!. He took the coffee cup and flung it too the ground, watching the plain white mug shatter on the floor, the already cold coffee splattered across the carpet.

“It will leave a stain,” Augustine muttered to himself bitterly, “and stains aren’t beautiful.”

He turned around and shut the window and drew the curtains closed, darkening his study. It had been so neat years ago, but now the years of neglect and Augustine’s natural tendency towards disorganization showed their full effect. His desk was cluttered with papers, dirty dishes, broken pencils, and most disturbingly empty bottles and carelessly abandoned cigarette buts and cartons . Dust had begun to settle on the bookshelves, there were stacks of disorganized papers everywhere, more dirty dishes, the old gramophone had cobwebs inside the horn, more bottles were scattered across the room, and the carpet had acquired many stains over the years. It had decayed so much since all those years ago, Lysandre had picked out so many things to make it beautiful, all of those little details didn’t gleam as they used to, those ornate frills and detailing just served to collect dust now, the brass knobs no longer gleamed brightly, greasy fingertips had taken away the shine so long ago. Augustine’s assistants did attempt to clean up the filth that the professor’s office had built up, but their attempts were almost always fruitless for the Professor only left his study for only the shortest periods of time, and only if he decided that that excursion was absolutely necessary, a process that took an extremely long time for him to wrap his head around.

Augustine had also let the neglect that was present in his office consume his personal appearance. No longer was his hair in his signature coiffed curls but it hung limply, covered in grease and down to almost his shoulders now, his sideburns has fully grown into a scraggly beard, the shine in his eyes had dulled as shadows pooled into the bags that had formed after so many sleepless nights. He had long since given up on dressing nicely too, he wore the same too-big on his slender body sweater day after day and didn’t even bother with his labcoat anymore, it lay crumpled on top of a decorative table, covered in stains and was draped limply over the dried remains of a floral arrangement. He had been falling back into some old bad habits too, the empty bottles and cigarette cartons were proof enough of this. The only objects in the spacious study that seemed to be regularly interacted with was the pile of letters, newspapers, and assorted other documents on Augustine’s desk. Other than the Interpol reports the letters were mostly from Calem and Serena both of whom appeared to be ignorant of the Professor’s decline and were off on adventures in foreign regions. To the best of his knowledge Serena was currently challenging contests in Hoenn and Calem had joined Interpol on the manhunt for a certain Mr. N Harmonia, who was supposed to go in for questioning after Team Plasma had collapsed in the Unova Region. Every week or so they’d send letters documenting their adventures in faraway places and strange regions. He thought to himself, it’s probably best that they can’t see me in this state, UGH! He was glad that they could no longer contact him via Holocaster, the old Lysandre labs model that… HE, had given to them years ago had long since become obsolete, and one night when he was roaring drunk he had smashed his own Holocaster in a fit of rage, it’s for the best, that THING would just remind me of him, the carcass of shattered screens and computer chips was also long absconded by a lab assistant in one of the futile cleaning sprees.

“They’re off having their own lives, and it’s probably best that they don’t see me in this state,” Augustine muttered as he reached around, looking for a blanket on the floor. The autumn chill had seeped through his ratty sweater and against his formerly lythe but now just scrawny torso.

“I’ve become like that guy in that movie that that assistant took me too to try and cheer me up.” Augustine rambled to himself, even though no one was listening to him now, all his assistants were in the lab downstairs, doing the work that he was supposed to be doing. “Yeah that one, Years of Destinys of Whatsitsname, or was it Age of Futures Days? Bah, whatever it was that superhero movie from Unova with the Professor guy and the Magnet Man and giant robots and Louis thought that it would cheer me up, yeah a Unovan popcorn movie, just dumb action and special effects and stuff. Yeah ‘an action flick that’d cheer me right up!’ but it just made it worse! LOUIS WHAT WERE YOU THINKING i’M JUST LIKE THAT GUY NOW, I don’t remember his name but DAMNIT! I’m a hopeless wreck!”

Augustine continued on his rant for a good five minutes more. Talking faster and faster, emotion forming words with little care or thought put into them. One of his assistants heard the rambeling from outside of the grand doors of his study. “Are you alright Monsieur?” A lab assistant questioned as they cracked the door open. “GET OUT!” Augustine snapped at the assistant, but in a sudden moment of sharpness is voice quivered, “I’m not.” He sighed with exasperation. 

“I haven’t been fine in four years.” Augustine collapsed back into his chair. “Ever since he.. he.. LYSANDRE, died. I don’t know what to do with myself anymore. I was in love with him, but he had this vision, that vision for the world with all of those people DEAD! I DON’T EVEN KNOW IF I WAS EVEN SUPPOSED TO BE PART OF IT! I should have known, I’m a Professor I’m supposed to be smart and stuff, but I didn’t read the signs, I didn’t try to reach out and stop him when I could. I just sat aside and was blinded by how passionate he was, and then he did it, and now he’s… he’s… he’s… gone.”

 

Augustine’s voice trailed off and tears began to pour out from his eyes and onto his now hollowed cheeks. “I could have stopped him.” He croaked, voice hoarse from the yelling. “I’m sorry I snapped at you, I’m just such a wreck these days. I can’t remember the last time I was happy and I wasn’t faking, like how I did when Calem and Serena were still in Kalos.”

“I actually have something for you, you might find it interesting,” the assistant handed the Professor a manila envelope, the Interpol insignia was emblazoned on it and the words “CONFIDENTIAL, FOR ONLY AUTHORIZED EYES ONLY” stamped on the flap. Augustine snatched the letter out of the assistant's hands with surprising speed. Foregoing the elaborate letter opener that was stabbed into the desk, Augustine tore the envelope apart like a starved Hydreigon to a Bouffalant corpse. Augustine read the document franticly, with a speed unlike anything that any of the assistants had seen from the Professor in years.

“Interpol has reported that….. Geosenge Town…. signs of life….. approximately 2 meters tall… orange hair… Geosenge General Hospital….OH MY, HOLY…. SWEET ARCEUS HE’S ALIVE! LYSANDRE IS ALIVE! Wait, that bastard who tried to kill us all is alive… But he’s alive and maybe he can be redeemed? Lysandre, mon cher….” Augustine got lost in his thoughts and trailed off mid sentence as he usually did when thoughts rushed too fast in his head to form words. “Call Calem and Serena, also book the next train to Geosenge, also what am I doing all crusty, I’m going to meet my mon grande again! I need to be… nah at least have had a shower before I see him again!”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Three hours and one impromptu makeover later  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Former recluse, Professor Augustine Sycamore has been spotted at the Lumiose City Central train station in the first sighting of the elusive professor in over seven months. He has declined an interview and appears to be heading to Geosenge Town. His only comment was ‘Get out of my way I have important professorly business to attend too’, as he clambered onto the train which had already begun to leave the station.”

“It appears that He’s back in his old good spirits, wasn’t he half passed out and in the middle of Magenta Plaza”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
One train ride and gossipy newscast later  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Professor Sycamore ran as fast as his legs could carry him to Geosenge Hospital, which wasn’t that fast considering how he really didn't do much physical exertion in the past four years, but the adrenalin kept him going. He dashed through the sliding glass doors of the hospital, and proceeded to trip over his own foot, knocking over a flower vase and nearly taking down a nurse with him. His “downward spiral” turned into a improvised somersault gangly limbs flying everywhere, finally finishing with his nose to the ground, right in front of Calem and Serena.

“Bonjour,” Augustine said, bringing himself back to his feet. He dusted off his clothing, his face red as a tomato berry. 

“I’m glad to see that your doing well Professor,” Serena grinned as Augustine tried to make himself look presentable again.

“Glad to see you too,” Calem said, “now what did you call us here for? I had to teleport using my Alakazam, and I got all dizzy.” 

“It’s top secret, important professor stuff you know. Oh I’ve got to show this to the nurse so we can do the thing.” Augustine practically trilled.

Augustine turned away from Calem and Serena, and walked over to the front desk, showing the papers to the nurse. Calem and Serena looked at him with much concern. They whispered something to each other but Augustine was too busy with the nurse at the desk to notice.

“Alright then, it’s in room J 324.” Augustine chirped making exaggerated gestures towards the elevator. Calem and Serena followed but they still had a look of concern on their faces. It wasn’t that hard to find the hospital room, it was in a fairly central location and was just like any of the other rooms. They walked through the door and saw him, he was sitting in a chair reading a book, he looked strange without his hair gelled into his signature style but the man that was before them was definitely Lysandre.

“Augustine?” he asked, his face actually expressing supprise.

“Yes who else do you think it could be.” Augustine quipped as he walked over to the redhead. Augustine then proceed to punch Lysandre in the face.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After only just a brief reunion the plot thickens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey ya'll sorry for not posting a new chapter in a while. I've been really busy with school and I hope that someday I will update both Grey and this fic on a weekly basis!

Calem and Serena stood in shock of what the professor had done, Augustine really wasn’t the kind of man who would punch another man in the face without provocation, especially one who was hooked up to several IVs. Lysandre looked unlike himself, his hair flopped down on to his broad shoulders in a cascade of bright orange, and even though the man was over two meters tall and very muscular, somehow managed to look vulnerable in his pastel blue hospital gown. He had a semi glazed look on his face, like he was about to fall asleep, or everything in the room was so painfully boring and he was forced to stay awake. Augustine’s punch hadn’t done as much as he had expected it to, the former leader of Team Flare just sat there staring into space. “He must be heavily sedated, I could only imagine the condition you were in when they brought you here.” Augustine muttered, placing his hand onto his newly shaven chin, stroking it with his long pale fingers.

“Calem, Serena, I wish to have some time alone with Lysandre, I’m a professor after all, it’s for science, I swear.” Augustine attempted to use his most serious voice, he always was such a terrible liar, and judge of character, but he made his best attempt to sound as serious as possible. How hard could it be to, to… lie to the children that you had met four years ago hand entrusted with the Pokedex. “I am a terrible person.” Augustine thought to himself as Calem and Serena left the hospital room. Augustine examined Lysandre, he looked almost the same as how he did four years ago, only his copper hair wasn’t gelled into his signature style and it now hung stick straight down to his chest. His beard had become an unruly mass of wiry curls that covered his neck, it wasn’t like him to neglect his appearance like that, but Arceus knows what happened to him down there. He probably hadn’t eaten anything while he was down there, no wait that’s impossible, no human could survive four years without food or water. Maybe Team Flare had reserves of food in their base, and that’s how he survived? Augustine clapped his hands to snap himself out of his thoughts. Except for his hair Lysandre seemed to have been frozen in time from when he was buried, his well muscled chest moving softly up and down, almost as if he was asleep. Augustine could remember the last time he had seen him over the Holocaster, how he spoke with such power in his voice, how his words had shaken him, how he spoke of burning this world down and replacing it with a “perfect one” of his own making.

“Oh Augustine you fool,” the Professor muttered looking away from the incapacitated Lysandre. “Was that what he was always going on about? Genocide? And he never mentioned me in any of his ‘rants’ did I even have a place in this new world? Maybe I’m just the biggest idiot that Arceus put on this rock and I was never meant to know about any of this.” 

Augustine paced around the hospital room, continuing his rant, by the time he had finished berating himself the sun had began to set. Augustine looked out of the plate glass window at the darkening orange sky, he remembered how back in college how there was that one tree on campus that he and Lysandre would lay and watch the sunset from. Sometimes Lysandre would bring a bottle of wine and they’d drink it, and other times Augustine would sneak some food from the cafeteria and they’d have a picnic, but this meeting would inevitably turn into stargazing and a discussion of philosophy. Maybe this was when Lysandre started thinking those, things. Augustine cringed at the thought of how there was the possibility that he had began plotting genocide on those perfect evenings they shared together. He couldn’t bear to think that all the way back then Lysandre was already planning, but Augustine could vaguely recall how over the years he had seen the light inside Lysandre’s eyes dim, how he seemed to harshen over time. 

“You’re a bloody fool when you’re in love Augustine.” The Professor said leaning against the window with one arm and covering his face with his other hand. He saw the sun peaking out over a distant hill, the sky a symphony of oranges, pinks and purples with the stars just beginning to come out, a sight rare in Lumiose City. 

“It’s just like back at my dad’s old place, remember Lys? How he’d show us the constellations and stuff? We were really little and I didn’t even know that you were the heir to that fortune. You were just some kid who was wandering around Amberett and we’d just hang out together...”

Augustine’s reminiscing was broken by a sudden cough. He turned to see that Lysandre had come to, his eyes were still dull from the sedatives. He slowly lifted his arm and brushed a strand of his copper hair away from his eyes. They were so peaceful, maybe some things had changed. Augustine hadn’t seen Lysandre so calm in years, building up to the … incident he had become hostile towards almost everyone who crossed his path. Lysandre’s voice had become a roar when he would talk about how all the world was filth, and when it was not he growled about it under his breath. His body was still powerfully built, his exposed arms could have been carved out of marble, Augustine knew what was underneath the thin paper of his hospital gown, that chest that he must have spent days of his life embracing. It probably was as unchanged as the rest of Lysandre, not a hair nor freckle nor fine wrinkle had changed about Lysandre, it seemed that Lysandre was paused for four years time hadn’t changed him at all. 

“Why are you surprised, Augustine?” Lysandre said, the growl gone from his voice and replaced with a familiar, but long unused purr. “ What’s the matter, mon coeur? You look like you’ve seen a ghost!” 

“ I may as well have…” Augustine muttered. 

“Oh Augustine must you play games, it’s me Lysandre, your….”

Maybe the sedatives hadn’t fully worn off, why was he even being sedated, Augustine examined the many IVs that his former ‘friend’ was connected to. At first glance it was nothing unusual, saline at 0.9%, some glucose, electrolytes, Augustine stopped and focused on one specific bag hanging towards the back, Lysandre's sedative was over 500 times the lethal dose of that particular drug. 

“Very strange,” Augustine whispered stroking his chin, he could have just been misreading the label, it was tucked to the back and the light was bad. Augustine pulled away from the IV bags and went on to examine Lysandre’s incapacitated form. He knew almost every contour of his face and chest by memory, from all of those nights in college when they would feel each other's body heat through the thin sheets of the dorm room beds. Augustine ran his fingers along Lysandre’ s collarbone and was shocked by how cold his skin was, that couldn’t be normal. Augustine turned his gaze to the screen that was showing Lysandre’s vitals, there was no pulse, no breathing, but the EEG monitor that somehow Augustine hadn’t noticed that he was hooked up to was still buzzing with life, as if he was in a deep sleep. 

“Strange, very strange,” Augustine murmured worriedly as he had stroked his freshly shaven chin, something he was still unaccustomed to after almost four years of having given up. His brain still was in a fog, and wasn’t as sharp as it had been four years ago but the light inside his mind was beginning to turn back on. He examined the monitor again, attempting to recall what all of those buttons did, he also hoped that all of the medical dramas, one of the lesser damaging addictions he had developed over the past four years, were at least to some degree accurate. He focused all of his attention on the buttons, but this focus was broken by one of the nurses announcing that the hospital’s visiting hours were going to end in ten minutes, how could have time passes so quickly? Augustine took a little of his precious time to berate himself for letting the time slip away, but he then snapped back to do his quite impulsive and most certainly risky business.

Augustine looked at the buttons and decided that because his intellect wasn’t as sharp as it once was to not try and think things out and just go with instinct. In this really reckless decision, he closed his eyes and pressed on three completely random buttons, not daring to look, only opening his eyes when he heard the beeping stop. He then dashed out of the room as fast as he could, which was significantly slower than he had wished, but still got the job done. He went down the elevator and exited the hospital and went to a cafe across the street. He noticed that his thoughts were becoming clearer and quicker. He called Calem and Serena and told them to come to the loading dock of the hospital in a hour. He waited anxiously in the cafe, finalizing his plans, and hoping that he could actually pull something like this off. He really hadn’t been the type to pull of capers, especially ones on the fly, well there were his schoolboy pranks but Lysandre was usually the one who came up with them, and he was usually the one who he convinced to go with him.

Augustine left the cafe and went back to the hospital. He then snuck back to the loading dock and saw that Calem and Serena were waiting there as he had told them. 

“Hey professor!” Calem burst out before Augustine went and shushed Calem.

“Why’d you call us?” Serena whispered, seeing as how he had reacted to Calem’s comment.

“You guys trust me right?” Professor Sycamore whispered.

“Yeah I do, you’re like the smartest guy in all of Kalos and like you helped us save all of Kalos and stuff,”Serena replied. “So like what is it? Like what do you want?” 

Professor sycamore took in a deep breath and took a second to clear his mind, preparing to tell the children… err not that they were young adults now and deserved to be treated as such. 

“We are going to steal Lysandre.”

“WHAT!” Calem and Serena said in unison. 

“We are going to steal Lysandre. Like get him out of here and take him home.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Are you drunk?” Calem yelled.

“This is not Unovan Treasure. Like your just a normal guy, I mean professor,” Serena added. 

“You're just gonna end up getting caught. Be realistic, like this is not a movie. Shit has consequences and even though we saved the region we’re not like James Bond or some biz!” 

Serena took a second to calm down. 

“Sorry Professor, it’s just that even though we saved the world, there are still some things that we are not willing to do. Come on Calem, we’ve got our own problems.”

Calem and Serena walked away leaving the professor alone. The street lamp flickered and Augustine was alone. He sighed and paced around a bit. He thought to himself and in the end realized that they were right.

“Come on Augustine you know that that plan was ridiculous. You really didn’t expect that to work. Like this real life not some cheesy Unovan action flick. But at least I can…”

Augustine snapped out of his rambling and walked into the loading dock, trying to avoid the security cameras he slipped into a small storage room filled with old office furniture. He tried to open the door but it was locked from the other side. He managed to open the door using a old gift card that he had forgotten to use. He snuck around the hospital making his way to a stairwell, being as quiet as possible. Making it to the floor that Lysandre was on he walked up to the door which to his surprise was open by just a crack. 

“Here’ goes nothing.” Augustine said as he opened the door.

He couldn’t have been less shocked by the scene inside. Lysandre was gone and the room had been ransacked! The floor and walls were soaked with liquid from burst IV bags and shattered glass and paper was everywhere. The window had a fist sized hole taken out of it and the bed was splattered with what appeared to be blood. Augustine stood there in shock. What had even happened in there? And where Was Lysandre! Augustine heard footsteps in the hallway outside and went and hid behind the bed.

“Look I know that he was a troublesome one but was it really necessary to give him that much tranquilizer?” A unfamiliar voice in the hallway whispered.

“You should have seen what he was capable of. Twelve men, it took twelve men to hold him down, and he punched that hole in the window! I’m certain in my decision Dr. Colbert!” Another raspier voice said. 

“I want his room cleaned out by tomorrow, we can’t have anyone become suspicious. If anyone asks about Mr. Lysande tell them that we had never had him as a patient. WE NEVER DID!” The raspy voiced doctor added.

Augustine stayed dead still until he heard the doctors walk away. He had to get out of there. Who knew how long he had to get out of there. Augustine almost made it to the door but then he stopped. He looked over his shoulder one last time and saw the saline or random drug soaked papers on the floor. He bent down and grabbed as many of the as he could papers and left the room. He then snuck back out of the hospital and went back to the pokemon center. 

He was exhausted, having stayed up until Arceus knows when, and given his lifestyle for the past four years that stunt was much more physically taxing than he would have imagined that it would be. He didn’t even have a chance to look over the bundle of soggy papers, he just flopped over on the bed and went to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> A bit of an homage to X-Men Days of Futures Past... why is there not a Perfectworldshipping or Cherik AU fic of this yet. Like I ship both and cinnamon roll professor x genocidal guy seems to be the way to go. Also Louis, read the movie's review or description before you decide to go, that was kind of a kind of a jerk move, you know Louis.
> 
> Also I bet you thought that this was going to be pure angst, but I got you. Don't worry there's going to be more angst in later chapters.


End file.
